Coleman leads Franken by 10 points in latest poll

A new poll of the Minnesota U.S. Senate race has two surprising results. Incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman leads Democrat Al Franken by 10 percentage points, and Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley is up to 19 percent.

The poll, released Thursday, was taken by robotic interviews with 725 likely voters on Tuesday and Wednesday. The margin for sampling error was plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

The internals of the poll show Franken trailing Coleman among men and women and all age groups. Among DFLers, Franken gets 65 percent, Barkley 19 percent and Coleman 10 percent – with 7 percent undecided.

Compared with the SurveyUSA poll three weeks ago, Franken is down 10 points, Coleman is up 2 points and Barkley is up 5 points.

The three candidates meet for their first debate Sunday evening in Rochester. The debate has not yet been scheduled for statewide broadcast.